Album Review: rappers suck. by Cletus Strap
In verses written partly in a rented beach house in Oxnard, the Los Angeles rapper turns a survey of broke friends into first-rate comic writing.
Traveling with the hardcore band Zulu took him to a rented beach house in Oxnard, and a portion of this project was written there. Cletus Strap writes lengthy verses with rare choruses, and since he writes so densely, any bar without an image would stand out. Earl Sweatshirt signed him to Tan Cressida and executive produced this project. Mad Max 4800 handled most of the production work. Earl Sweatshirt and Omari Lyseight started it off.
A catalog is something you browse through to find what you came for, with the daily grind documented within its pages (“Every day someone get shot, wish it was a catalog”). Two people arguing lead to a game of paddleball in “paddleball,” literally, whilst the stepper crew he arrived with receives little attention; not even as much as the Apple Watch no one is wearing. He is married to his craft, seeking to get a divorce. On “chilli,” the blood stains on his shirt are due to a lint roller issue, with the chorus ending in these words: “I don’t have anemia, I just get chilly.” When the ark is filled, swimmers risk drowning. None of the characters from that image are being saved; the caged bird is singing to alert the animals who are about to board. “goose chase” leaves us with the flood scenario and urges us to create our own lane—like lanes at a bowling alley. The ships on “fuck no” are crewed in the same way as usual—people cleaning the poop deck before anything out of the ordinary starts to happen, or “loose lips sink ships like the iceberg.”
The guys working around him know they’ve never tried to deal with money issues. When he feels wronged by someone, he figures they are impoverished, and “the money make you then there can be no we” shares a verse about the difference between a start on the street and two strikes. Since he is aware of their inadequacies, he doesn’t need to try hard. There’s another track where he is too cozy with money, and the people he cannot trust are also seated at the table. Everyone came out with him, and he paid for the food.
Someone then vents about past traumas, thinking he is a statue. Having come from a place of great need, he has constructed his section of it and does not see it as an excuse. “nonchalant” features the artist breaking down in tears before the rain starts to fall (“Couldn’t process it yet ‘cause I was really high”), with Earl Sweatshirt delivering a second verse and apologizing for crushing someone’s dream. He has seen the knives being sharpened, and he was given coins for his thoughts, though he stayed beyond welcome. The verse wraps up with the promise that everyone is locked in tonight like it’s 2009.
VIP SKYLARK starts off with the first verse of “Risk it”—he spells out his name before getting into his rap. He can no longer tell the difference between Sativa and Indica strains of cannabis, and doesn’t want to paint that picture for us. He refers to his pain as an elixir and does not want to be saved. Next up is Cletus Strap. Hollywood has impounded his car, and several of his friends have died trying to help him deal with the effects of marijuana. The rhymes flow well: “Every day feel like a fight, I’m a gladiator/Alligator taste the cake, you can have it later.” The “-ator” sound repeats throughout the track after the visuals fade away. “way more fun” has a similar structure, featuring a 4-word hook and scattered punchlines. At the end of the song, a young man appears with a gun—there’s no explanation as to why he has it.
Cletus can only trust you up to the point where you let things slip. The program creates a feeling of smallness on “on tha run,” and the theme song from a popular TV show is all that reminds someone of it. The hook asks what the worst that could happen to us all is and answers it’s still going down, asking to meet at the mall. Word to Yung Joc. In the verse, he questions if they could fly before they disintegrate. A container of cheese curds appears in the middle of the verse. He concludes by mixing tobacco with his drugs and giving cancer increased volume, just as he had given to the mall.
Great (★★★★☆)
Favorite Track(s): “chilli,” “fuck no,” “goose chase”